Black-out

On a cold, drizzly, dull April day, the Jackrabbits’ bats mimicked the weather.

Southern Utah’s starting pitcher Heather Black struck out 15 SDSU hitters with no walks as she pitched all seven innings. At one point, Black had eight K’s in a row.

Head coach Joanna Lane said SUU was playing the Jacks to pull the ball, calling the defense a “reverse (Jim) Thome shift”. All game long there was a wide-open gap in right field, but SDSU couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity.

“All we wanted to see was a bloop over the first baseman’s head,” Lane said.

Pitching struggles

Sophomore Kori Seidlitz started the game for the Jacks, but in the 2nd inning, after 4 straight walks and nobody out, junior Pam Nicholson came in for relief with the bases loaded.

Nicholson worked out of the inherited jam, and went on to pitch the rest of the game, but allowed a run in the top of the 7th that doomed the Jacks, while Nicholson took the loss.

SDSU hitters only mustered three hits against SUU’s Black, and the adjustments during the game didn’t come in time.

“You’re sitting on a curveball, and we’re telling our kids to hit an outside pitch, let the ball get deep,” Lane said, “we were spinning off of that pitch. We were throwing hands but we lost our power.”